Brick-machine



NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

A. V. HOUGI-I, OF GREENCASTLE, INDIANA.

BRICK-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 13,129, dated June 26, 1855.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, A. V. HOUGH, of Greencastle, in the county of Putnamand State of Indiana, have invented a new and Improved Brick-Machine;and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, reference eing had to the annexed drawings,making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is alongitudinal vertical section of my improvement. Fig. 2, is a plan ortop view of ditto.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the twofigures.

The nature of my invention consists in placing regulating slides (7')(f) at the bottom of the pug mill as will be presently shown anddescribed. And also placing a shaft provided with suitable bladeshorizontally within a cylindrical case, whereby the machine is renderedextremely simple, and other advantages derived therefrom as will behereafter shown.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully understand and construct myinvention, I will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a horizontal bed having cleats or ledges a, a, one at eachside, between which the brick molds B, fit or work, the molds restingupon the bed.

C, represents a cylindrical case which is secured horizontally over thebed A. The ends of this cylindrical case rest upon the cleats or ledges,cz, a, so as to leave a space between the lower side of the case C, andthe surface of the bed A, to allow the molds to pass underneath thecase, see Fig. l. IVithin 'the case C, there is placed a longitudinalshaft D, which has radial arms, o, attached to it. To the ends of thesearms horizontal blades, c, are attached, similar to a fan wheel, theedges of the blades, c, do not extend as far as the inner side of thecase C, a space being allowed between the blades and case. To one end ofthe shaft D, there is attached a pinion E, which gears into a pinion F,and the pinion F, gears into a pinion F', at one end of a horizontalshaft G, underneath the bed A. This shaft G, is provided with a crank H,to which one end of a rod or pitman I, is attached, the opposite end ofthe rod or pitman being attached by a bow, d, to a bar J, which works onthe bed A, slots, e, being made through the bed to allow projections onthe under side of the bar to pass through, the ends of the bow beingFig. l.

To the end of the shaft D, opposite to the end where the pinion F, isattached, there is secured a toothed wheel K, see Fig. 2.

To the upper part of the cylindrical case C, there is secured a box L,the front and back ends of which are inclined. The lower end of this boxis provided with two slides, j', f, one passing through the front, andthe other through the back end piece of the box. The slides, f, aresomewhat inclined, their inner edges being lower than the outer edges,see Fig. l.

Within the box L, there are placed three cylinders, M, M, M, thesecylinders are parallel with the shafts D, G, and have radial arms orbeaters, g, attached to them, the arms or beaters of one cylinderpassing between or overlapping those of the adjoining one. The shafts orjournals of the cylinders M, at one end have pinions N, attached tothem, one to each, these pinions gear into each other, and one of thepinions gears into the toothed wheel K, at the end of the attached tothese projections, see

' shaft D.

The lower end of the cylindrical case A,

has a longitudinal opening, h, made in it,

in which a grate O, is fitted, the spaces between the bars of the gratebeing somewhat smallef than the molds.

At one side of the lower part of the case C, there is attached a plateor scraper P, see Fig. l.

Operation: The clay is placed in the box L, and supplied with arequisite quantity of water. Motion is given the' shaft D, in any propermanner, and the clay is ground and tempered by the arms or beaters, g.The slides, f, are adjusted so as to allow the requisite quantity ofground clay to pass into the case C, and the blades, c, as they rotateforce the clay through the grate O, into the molds B, which are fedunderneath the cylindrical case C, by the bar J, said bar being operatedby the rod or pitman I, and crank H. The filled molds are forced one ata time out at the front side of the case C, at every stroke or vibrationof the bar J, and the empty molds are placed directly in front of thebar J, back of the case, previous to the forward movement of said bar.The plate or scraper P, clears the superfluous clay oftl from the uppersurfaces of the molds, as they are forced out from underneath the caseC.

The above machine is extremely simple, economical to manufacture, and isnot liable to get out of repair. By having the shaft D, placed in ahorizontal position and provided with radial arms with blades (c) and byhaving the horizontal cylinders M, with the beaters (g) attached asshown, the machine is rendered extremely simple, for motion iscommunicated direct from the shaft D, to the cylinderl M, whereas inother machines a complicated arrangement of le vers is required and inmany cases the pug mill is operated by a separate application of power.The blades (c) will force the clay into the molds equally as well as areciprocating plunger or follower which is mostly used.

I am aware that vertical shafts with radial arms attached have been usedfor forcing the clay into a press box, in which a plunger' works. In myimprovement I dispense with a plunger, and the whole Work, viz,tempering and grinding the clay What I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is,

l. I claim the slides f, f, placed at the botto-m of pug mill L, for thepurpose of enabling the operator to regulate the rapidity of the egressof the clay, according as it requires to be subjected to the operationof the cylinder for a longer or shorter time.

2. I claim placing the shaft D, with its blades (c) in a horizontalposition within the cylindrical case C, as herein shown, whereby themachine is rendered extremely simple, the journals kept free from clay,and all the parts of the machine operated by the rotation of a singleshaft.

A. V. I-IOUGI-I.

Witnesses:

Jos. GEO. MASON, WM. TUsoH.

